Events

A Debate: Closing the DFS Gender Gap

Aug

28

Background

Grameen Foundation will replicate a debate held during the 2017 Women's Economic Empowerment Global Learning Forum on the best way the close the digital financial services (DFS) Gender Gap. One side will offer the proposition that digital platforms allow for more specialized and focused financial products. Using behavioral economics, our sector should focus on developing products that meet the specific needs of women and the way they manage money. The con side will argue that financial products are all similar, and what we need to focus on is greater financial and digital literacy and increasing equitable household relations.

Speakers

Rebecca Rouse directs IPA's Financial Inclusion Program, overseeing a portfolio of research initiatives and randomized evaluations to find effective solutions to help the poor manage and grow their money. Before joining IPA, she was Coordinator of the Regional Facility on Remittances and Savings of the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a member of the Inter-American Development Bank Group. Prior to joining the MIF, Rebecca served as IPA’s United States Household Finance Initiative Program Manager from 2010 to 2013. Rebecca also worked at the Inter-American Dialogue, the International Organization for Migration, FINCA Peru, Banco de Ahorro y Crédito Unión in the Dominican Republic, and as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer in Philadelphia. Rebecca holds an MPA from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a BA in political science from Bryn Mawr College.

Gigi Gatti leads Grameen Foundation’s digital, financial and agricultural services initiatives in Asia, facilitates strategic partnerships for program implementation and provides oversight on program deliverables. She has more than 20 years of experience in the IT, banking, insurance and microfinance industries. Previously, she served as vice president at BPI Globe BanKO, technical program officer of Grameen Foundation, National Officer (OGA) at the Asian Development Bank and professor at the Graduate School of Business of De La Salle University. She holds a Masters in Business Administration and a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the De La Salle University (Philippines). She also earned a certified microfinance expert certificate from the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management (Germany) and a certified information systems auditor with ISACA.

Tanjilut Tasnuba, Team Leader, Social Innovation Lab, BRAC

Tanjilut Tasnuba is a Team Leader at the BRAC Social Innovation Lab. Currently she is leading the project “Innovation Fund for Mobile Money” funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Tanjilut is also involved in consultancy with INGOs and development partners. She has conducted independent research with Data Analysis and Technical Assistance Limited, Action Aid Bangladesh, Plan International Bangladesh.

Tanjilut’s areas of expertise include educational development, social innovation, digital financial services for development, quantitative and qualitative research, team leadership and project management. She has completed Bachelor of Education and Master of Education degree from Institute of Education and Research of University of Dhaka and a Masters of Arts degree in Special and Inclusive Education under Commonwealth Scholarship UK-2013 from Institute of Education, University College London.

Prior to joining CARE International UK as Senior Advisor – Financial Inclusion, Grace was leading the Women and Youth Financial Inclusion programme for CARE International in Uganda where she provided strategic direction and leadership for a number of financial inclusion, enterprise development and market access programmes.

She is well known for having championed the Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) methodology and taking it to scale for not only CARE Uganda but across the region. She has over 18 years experience in developing and implementing financial inclusion and innovative solutions that includes VSLA programming, digital technology, financial literacy and linkages, enterprise development and value chain programming.

Through her work, Grace has partnered with banks, microfinance institutions, mobile network operators and others in the private sector to adapt financial services to meet the needs of poor and marginalised people, especially women and youth, and has been involved in creating and co-creating innovative solutions, including digital solutions, to bring financial inclusion to previously unreached communities.

Moderator

Lauren Hendricks is the Executive Vice President for Global Strategy for Grameen Foundation. She was previously Executive Director for the Access Africa initiative at CARE, where she led the development of financial inclusion programs and innovative solutions to reach the poorest people in Africa. In this role, she partnered with banks, microfinance institutions, mobile network operators, and others in the private sector to adapt products and services to meet the needs of the poor, and to ensure that participants benefitted from new, digital financial services. Lauren also served as Director of the Economic Development Unit for CARE USA, where she provided strategic direction and technical leadership for more than 100 active microfinance and enterprise development programs in 54 countries.

WEE Forum Webinar Series

This webinar will focus on Theme 2 of the 2017 Women's Economic Empowerment Global Learning Forum, Employment Opportunities through Enterprise Development and Job Creation, and will explore various approaches to women’s empowerment. Participants will learn about the challenges and opportunities various skills and enterprise development programs face when implementing projects that seek to change gender relations. We will focus on the intersect between direct interventions and broader activities that aim to tackle social norms, highlighting lessons from the field, including India and Zambia.

Webinar 2: A Debate: Closing the DFS Gender Gap

Date: August 29, 2017

Time: 9:30am EDT

This webinar will focus on Theme 3 of the 2017 Women's Economic Empowerment Global Learning Forum, Women's Financial Inclusion: leveraging Finance to Advance Women's Empowerment, and will replicate a Peer Learning Session debate held by Grameen Foundation on the best way the close the digital financial services (DFS) Gender Gap. One side will offer the proposition that digital platforms allow for more specialized and focused financial products. Using behavioral economics, our sector should focus on developing products that meet the specific needs of women and the way they manage money. The con side will argue that financial products are all similar, and what we need to focus on is greater financial and digital literacy and increasing equitable household relations.

CARE Bangladesh will host a webinar on Theme 1 of the 2017 Women's Economic Empowerment Global Learning Forum, The Rural Poor: Women's Empowerment on and off the Farm, sharing its unique experience and learning from Strengthening Dairy Value Chain Project. The webinar will replicate a forum Peer Learning Session, aiming to share insights on the status of gender inequality in dairy-based market system and how an enterprise-led dairy-hub model can make it gender inclusive. Participants will include BRAC Dairy, a leading dairy processor in Bangladesh, also SDVC project partner, to share their experience of transforming the core business model, and Oxfam Bangladesh, to reflect on their learning on promoting women’s economic leadership from their dairy value chain work in Bangladesh.